The Relationship between Cognitive-Behavioral Skills and Mother-Child Interaction with Symptoms of Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children with ADHD

Nowadays, the main focus of modern researches in the field of ADHD has been on the area of comorbid disorders and reducing their symptoms. In this regard, cognitive-behavioral therapies have tried to reduce the symptoms by using methods such as self-control, problem-solving, and social skills. Given the important role of the family, the present study investigated the pre-assumptions of the treatment by addressing the structural relationships between the social skills, problem-solving skills, and self-control with the symptoms of conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorders in the children with ADHD and the mediating role of the mother-child interaction. Methods: This study was performed on 104 male students, fourth to sixth grade students of the elementary schools in Yazd City, Iran. In this study, the Child Symptom Inventory (CSI), Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS), Problem- Solving Inventory (PSI), Self-Control Rating Scale (SCRS), and Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) were used. The results were analyzed with path analysis by SPSS software version 23. Results: Findings showed that problem-solving skills, self-control skills, social skills, and mother-child interaction can explain 75% of the variance of CD and 71% of the variance of ODD in the model. In another section of the analysis, the findings showed that the effect of problem-solving and self-control skills on the mother-child interaction was significant, but the social skills had no significant effect on the mother-child interaction. Also, the problem-solving variable can affect the CD through the mediating variable in the mother-child interaction, and also has a direct relationship with the current disorder but does not have a significant effect on ODD. The self-control variable in addition to its direct relationship to disorder can affect CD and ODD through the mother-child interaction. Conclusion: Self-control, problem-solving, and social skills are associated with the symptoms of behavioral disorders in the children with ADHD, and can be used in designing cognitive-behavioral therapy packages, and also the way the mother and child interact, is effective in this type of treatments.